New Radio Access Technology, LTE (Long Term Evolution) and its successors such as 4G candidate standard LTE Advanced, are likely to be deployed in frequency bands new to cellular communications (e.g. 2.6 GHz) and old frequency bands, such as those currently used by the GSM Standard (GSM1800-1.8 GHz and GSM900-900 MHz). Whereas the latter frequencies are today solely occupied by GSM traffic, partly as a result of regulations and licensing conditions, the introduction of LTE will increase pressure for the “refarming” of those frequencies to the newer technology (and the consequent freeing up of traditionally GSM-only spectrum).
LTE is a technology that has been specified to support scalable carrier bandwidths in order to facilitate its introduction, these bandwidths include: 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz blocks. In the sites where LTE equipment will be installed (either as two separate RRU, Remote Radio Unit, modules or as integrated Single RRU working as GSM and LTE simultaneously) the bandwidth to be dedicated to LTE can be allocated analyzing the average GSM traffic present in the area as well as the LTE-capable terminal statistical penetration.
The decision of which bandwidth to dedicate to LTE based on the above mentioned statistical parameters is not efficient since it cannot take into account the real traffic situation on a specific cell/area; in addition, any fixed bandwidth allocation to LTE in the first roll-out phase of this technology will result in a loss of GSM capacity (1.4 MHz) not compensated by the low traffic generated by the low amount of LTE terminals in the market.